well i just returned home from the QEH where my uncle is on a ventilator wich is basically keeping him alive till all the family gets home.. he was being treaded for pneumonia the last while and was in hospital the other week for a few days.. well yesterday things turned bad and he was finally diagnosed with lung cancer.. in the early morning today he was sent to charlottown to be put on the ventilator as they can not do it in montague.. He was a smoker and drinker all his life and the fact that he has cancer is not a shock but the way they family found out is a shock to us all.. would have to say this is another star on pei's medical track record.. The few doctors we do have are killing us..

_________________To all of you that wonder if I know what I am doing, I say NO; but they let me fix airplanes.

Ive dealt with a lot of terrible doctors in the past 6 months.
My grandfather was dying of lung failure, cancer..etc. in the QEH back at the end of March..
my mother and my aunt were in his hospital room, and right in front of him the doctor said "yeah hes almost dead. itll be any day now" and left the room.

and whenever I was in the hospital at the end of April with kidney stones, they had me all pumped full of morphine, I could barely speak...and the doctor refused to explain some of the procedures, side effects..etc. to my parents, even though I was half asleep.
friggin crazy.

Well, not knowing the details of how your family found out - (assuming you mean that they thought it was pneumonia and found out it's cancer - sorry by the way ) just know that it is very possible to have cancer and not have the slightly friggin clue, even if the person is sick and in ill health. My hubby's grandma had her lungs x-rayed for pneumonia, and the xrays came back clear, six months later, after she still wasn't feeling well, she was re-x-rayed and there was advanced cancer spread throughout her chest cavity - her lungs were black and pretty well dead...it was tragic, but cancer is wierd that way. I think that as advanced as medicine has gotten, there are some diseases, like cancer, that just keep getting the better of us.

I have to chuckle on all the recent letters to the editor on Doug Cameron out of Summerside.. Before he got convicted of child molestation he was practising medicine pissed to the eyeballs... Yup,,, watched him staggar in to the ER and diagnose patients.... My own mother...

Doctors on PEI are out of touch for sure.. is probably why they are here... If it wasn't for a pediatrician who had trained with a nephorologist in Halifax, I probalby would have died in 1991.. mind you, what happened to me is rare, but there is a big difference between what actually happened to me (kidney failure) and what they thought happened to me (brain seizure)...

Joined: September 7th, 2005, 7:20 amPosts: 2483Location: currently in NS

My grandfather (when he was still alive) complained of pain in his arms, etc.. lots of other symptoms. They treated him for arthritis for 3 years, and then after SEVERE pain, and loooking into it, he was diagnosed with cancer and died a year later..

Wrong diagnosis can happen for sure, they are only human, but it was the lack of checking into anything, and just brushing it off as arthritis.. now that's annoying!

I still have to argue with the docs or nurses here. I had a real scare with a major lung aneurysm a few years back. Since my mom died of a blood clot in her lung/heart when I was 15, they assumed I has a blood clot too. But I'm quite the opposite, with having a major bleed. I can not have anything that thins my blood. But the last time i was at the ER, the nurse there was like "oh I remember you, you need blood thinners yes?" - NO!!!

I'm afraid if I went in there someday and could not speak for myself, I'd be done for cause they "remember" me

that said, I see quite a few specialists and I've felt very looked after by all of them. My family doctor is truly the best there is and he really makes sue to look after me.

The report apparently shows there are 2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery; 7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals; 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals; 80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals; 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications - these total up to 225,000 deaths per year in the US from iatrogenic causes which ranks these deaths as the # 3 killer. Iatrogenic is a term used when a patient dies as a direct result of treatments by a physician, whether it is from misdiagnosis of the ailment or from adverse drug reactions used to treat the illness. (drug reactions are the most common cause).

I'm just going by experience... I had 2 expereinces within a few days of each other, seen 3 different doctors, and none of them got it right.. I almost died... it was a fourth doctor who did a simple blood test that any of them could have done and figured out what was wrong with me...

[quote="hhost.ca"]Why do people always rag on PEI doctors.
The fact of the matter is no human is perfect.
Even doctors make mistakes. Just a fact of life we have to deal with.

True. Now if only doctors could admit that they aren't perfect. That's not to tar them all with the same brush, there are some very good doctors on PEI to go along with the ones phoning it in, padding their billing numbers and being too arrogant to admit mistakes.

I am sooooo biting my tongue on this thread ... probably because I have written thousands upon thousands of words in posts in the past on the subject ...

I'll not get into my mother-in-law having a major stroke and later dying because some ER doctor would not listen to family members when she had her TIA (warning stroke) a few weeks earlier.

I'll not get into 2 different doctors telling Connie that a)she was suffering anxiety and b) that she had indigestion, when in fact she was in congestive heart failure.

I'll not get into all the procedural errors made by the heart specialist here that had doctors in Saint John shaking their heads.

I'll not get into all the pain Connie suffered for ten years as her hip and pelvis were disintegrating because her family doctor kept telling her that her pain was all in her head.

I'll not get into some surgeon in Moncton wanting to know who had done the surgery on my step-daughter's condition that kept collapsing her lungs so that he could report him/her to the New Brunswick College of Physicians and his disappointment that he couldn't because the surgery had been done on PEI.

I'll not get into my oldest daughter suffering in extreme pain in the hospital for over 3 weeks while doctor after doctor scratched their heads and just prescribed more morphine until a doctor from Nova Scotia over on locum stopped in to check on one of his patients, who had been moved into my daughter's room, heard her deliriously moaning and checked her chart, then ordered a simple test to verify his suspicion and within two hours her pain was gone and her condition diagnosed and under treatment.

I'll not get into my youngest daughter being told that her second ovary would have to be removed (and that she would then be rendered sterile and childless) and of all the pre-surgery tests that were run, not a single pregnancy test. It was just a whim by a distraught young woman to go to Shoppers the night before surgery and buy a home preganancy test kit. Seven months later, my 5th grandchild was born. And my daughter still has her ovary!

I'll not get into my ex-wife going in for minor knee surgery and ending up on life support and spending weeks in intensive care because some doctor failed to check which medications she was allergic to.

And I won't get into the fact that she was in for that surgery because they had removed the cartilege from the wrong knee a few weeks prior to that.

And of course, I won't get into how my doctor prescribed blood pressure medication, then because he did not do any standard follow-up testing, ended up nearly killing me with a stroke.

Nope ... I won't get into any of that again. Because, after all, doctors elsewhere make mistakes also, even though in the 34 years I lived in New Brunswick, Québec and Ontario, I (or any family member) never once had a bad experience with a doctor ... not once.

It seems that on ATV news tonight, doctors do not like to be publicly rated on the level of service they provide. Recently the web site RateMDs.com has added the ability to rate Canadian doctors. I checked out the site and looked for family doctors, dentists and optometrists that I have dealt with over the years in Charlottetown. They were all there and have reasonable ratings.

I camped outside the ICU when my Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was in the hospital being treated for diabetes at the time they found out.

Dr Kutrough did the surgery, but a few days later Dad needed emergency surgery again...this time Dr Ashby did the operation.

On a dark,stormy night in Feb, about 2:30 am, Dr Ashby walked by me into the ward where he checked on my Dad's condition. Ever since then, I ignore the common criticism our doctors endure and rarely do I speak poorly of them in general.

i know of two members on this site, both of whom were almost killed by the incompetency of the qeh and its staff. in fact, had it not been for halifax, 1 of those memebers would be dead right now.
my father inlaw had alzehiemers. but it wasnt. it was congestive heart failure, but because he was 80, it was alzhemiers. he lived in charlottetown. had they made the proper diagnosis 4 years ealrier, chances are the old guy would be alive today.
my wife suffered with a conditon for 3.5 years before it was diagnosed. the reason it was diagnosed, i went into her dr's appointment with her, and lost my mind, blew my top, told the dr that there was no shame in admitting she wasnt god, and it was time to move my wife along to a specialist. i also wanted a specialist in halifax. when asked why , i told her that the reason was simple. imo if they were any good, they wouldnt be in such a small market like pei, that has no money, no equipment, and no time for the health care system.
i was informed that this specialist moved to pei from halifax, to a more relaxed atmoshepere, and that there was no way the gp was sending my wife to halifax. my wife, totally hoorifed at my rant , never said a word, but did speak up to say, that the specialist had 1 kick at the cat, if nothing was sorted out, she was going to go to halifax. the gp agreed. thankfully after a 8 month wait ( rediculous) and 5 min in the gp's office her problem was diagnosed. i should add that a year and a half prior to the second specailist visit, my wife was sent to dr wong or fong, (whichiever) and he basically dismissed her. turns out the two symptoms she had were realted, and when she told dr fong or wong he dismissed it with a wave of his hand , told , her to be quiet , he'd ask the questions and do the talking. nice guy eh?
so to sum up , dont get sick onpei.